Reinforceable vibrator system

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a fluid-operated vibrator mounted in a housing at the end of a stem serving as a handle. The stem is formed in two tubular sections spaced apart and joined by a flexible coupling capable of bending under the vibrational action of the vibrator. A slidable sleeve is adapted to be moved alongside the stem sections to reinforce the stem against bending at the coupling so that the vibrator housing may be thrust into wet concrete or granular material by hammering on an anvil at the top of the sleeve. To restore the flexibility characteristic of the coupling, the sleeve is withdrawn from the lower stem section, thereby permitting bending at the coupling under action of the vibrator.

United States Patent 1191 Malan 14 1 Sept. 17, 1974 REINFORCEABLE VIBRATOR SYSTEM Inventor: George L. Malan, 560 E. Rowland Apt. (G-3), Covina, Calif. 91722 Filed: May 21, 1973 Appl. No.: 362,429

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1965 Malan 259/1 R Primary Examiner-Harvey C. Hornsby Assistant Examiner-Alan Cantor Attorney, Agent, or FirmDonald D. Mon; D. Gordon Angus V [57] ABSTRACT There is disclosed a fluid-operated vibrator mounted in a housing at the end of a stem serving as a handle. The stem is formed in two tubular sections spaced apart and joined by a flexible coupling capable of bending under the vibrational action of the vibrator. A slidable sleeve is adapted to be moved alongside the stem sections to reinforce the stem against bending at the coupling so that the vibrator housing may be thrust into wet concrete or granular material by hammering on an anvil at the top of the sleeve. To restore the flexibility characteristic of the coupling, the sleeve is withdrawn from the lower stem section, thereby permitting bending at the coupling under action of the vibrator.

12 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures a.a=as'.1-24

PATENTEBSEPI 71914 SHEET 2 OF 2v llll'l F l llll I REINFORCEABLE VIBRATOR SYSTEM This invention relates to vibrator systems and more particularly to such systems for settling and distributing masses of concrete.

It is a common practice to settle, distribute and compact wet poured concrete or granular material or the like by use of fluid-powered vibrators which are thrust into the granular or concrete mass and vibrated.

In heavy concrete work, such as in the building of dams, powerhouses and other massive structures it is customary to utilize in the concrete relatively large rock masses such as rubble rock which may have dimensions on the order of 6 to 8 inches diameter. Furthermore, the concrete used in such construction is usually very stiff as the water content is commonly held to a minimum. In this type of construction it is also common practice for the vibrators to be manipulated by hand, which is heavy, hard work.

In Malan U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,624 issued Apr. 27, 1965 there is shown and claimed a vibrator arrangement for use in heavy stiff concrete which is attachable to a vehicle thereby relieving the operator of much of the hard work. In that arrangement a housing is attached to a handle suspended from the vehicle, by means of a flexible and elastic coupling. The handle is attached to the vehicle through a thrusting means which pushes the housing down into the concrete mass where operation of the vibrator acts on the concrete to settle and compact it as desired. By that arrangement the handle can be held relatively rigidly by its mechanical support from the vehicle while the vibrator is free to vibrate in lateral directions by reason of the flexible coupling, so that the energy of the vibrator is substantially all transmitted to the concrete.

It has been found that sometimes in the use of equipment according to said U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,624 the flexible coupling is not rigid enough to maintain the vibrator housing in the downward direction through the concrete mass in which it is being thrust. This is particularly true where the device is being thrust through very thick and relatively dry masses of concrete and particularly where large rubble or stone masses are encountered. Such factors tend to buckle the flexible coupling excessively so that the vibrator housing is steered in a different direction than desired.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a vibrator system which can be used in such heavy concrete masses containing large rubble rock and which can be thrust down into the concrete mass without buckling.

The invention is carried out by constructing the handle or stem which carries the vibrator housing, in a plurality of separated sections joined by a flexible coupling. A rigid sleeve slidable along the sections is adapted to be moved so that it takes a position alongside all the sections and the flexible coupling, and bears down on the vibrator to push it down. The sleeve may be retracted so that it no longer lies alongside the lower section of the stem. Thus, when the sleeve is moved to the position where it bears down on the vibrator, there is a rigid link between the top of the sleeve and the vibrator so that when heavy downward thrust is applied to the sleeve there is no buckling at the flexible coupling. When, however, the sleeve is retracted from the lower stem section the flexibility feature is returned to the flexible coupling so that the lower stem section and hence the vibrator housing may shake sideways relative to the upper stem section. Thus the vibrator is free to impart substantially all of its vibratory energy to the concrete and also can be deflected somewhat by large stone masses as it vibrates.

A. preferred feature resides in the provision of an anvil at the top of the slidable sleeve, to which downward driving force may be applied.

Another preferred feature resides in provision for tying or bonding the sleeve to the upper stem section when the sleeve is in its downward position alongside all sections. This facilitates removal of the vibrator from the concrete when the vibrator treatment has been completed.

The foregoing and other features of the invention will be better understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawing of which:

FIG. 1 is a side view, mostly in cross-section, of a preferred form of vibrator system according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view, mostly in cross-section of a portion of the arrangement of FIG. 1, showing the sleeve in a retracted position;

FIG. 3 is a cross-section view taken at line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-section view taken at line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the portion of the arrangement of FIG. 1 looking from line 5-5 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a side view in cross-section of another embodiment of the invention.

Referring to the drawing a vibrator 10 is shown mounted within a housing 11. The vibrator may be of a conventional type shown diagrammatically as a dotted rectangle. It may be one of those shown in Malan U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,187,088, 2,743,090 or 2,891,775, any of which are suitable for the purpose. The housing for the vibrator is of a conventional type which securely mounts the vibrator within it. Vibrators of this type have an eccentrically weighted rotor on a vertical axis of rotation which creates a tendency for the vibrator and its housing to rotate somewhat about the vertical axis in a sideways motion at a frequency dependent on the speed of rotation of the rotor. The top of the housing 11 is attached to a tubular stem or handle 12 having an upper tubular stem section 13 and a lower tubular stem section 14. The two stem sections are of equal diameter and located co-axially. The lower end of the upper section 13 being spaced at some distance from the upper end of the lower section 14. The separated ends of the two stem sections are joined together by a flexible and preferably elastic coupling member 15, the upper end of which is secured over the lower end of the upper section 13 by suitable means such as a band 16 and the lower end of the coupling is secured to the upper end of the lower section by a similar band 17.

The coupling member 15 may be the type of flexible coupling shown and described in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,624. It may, for example, have an axial length of about 7 inches with a free length between the stern section ends of about 3 inches to 4 inches. For a 6 inch diameter vibrator the wall thickness of the coupling may be about inch to 1 inch and it may conveniently be made of rubber or rubber-like material. Though the coupling be selected to resist ready bending, it is inherently flexible so that it will flex under the normal vibrator loading.

At the top of the vibrator housing 1 1 there is fastened an annulus 18 which fits within the lower stem section 14. Within tubular stem 12 there is a rigid tubular sleeve 19 curved inwardly toward the longitudinal axis at its lower end 20. The sleeve is slidable up and down within the stem sections 13 and 14 in sliding contact with the inner walls of the stem sections. The lower end 20 of the sleeve is adapted to rest on a collar 18 attached to the vibrator, and when positioned the upper end of the sleeve protrudes for some distance above the upper end of the upper stern section 13. An anvil 21 in the form of a block of a sturdy material strong and tough enough to accept blows from a hammer of the like is fastened at the upper end of the sleeve. At a position just below the anvil and above the top of the stem section 13 there is fastened a lug 22 and another similar lug 23 is fastened around the upper end of the upper stem section 13. The lugs 22 and 23 are provided with respective holes 22a and 23a through them so that a generally U-shaped hooking member 24 may have its arms sprung through the respective holes to hold the sleeve in its downward position as shown in FIG. 1.

For circulating the fluid through the vibrator to operate it there are provided an inlet fluid conduit 25 and an outlet fluid conduit 26 connected with the vibrator and carried upwardly through the tubular stem 12 and the sleeve 19 and brought out through the sleeve at a position just beneath the anvil and above the upper stem section 13. The inlet and outlet conduits will be connected to the pressure side and return side respectively of a suitable fluid pumping system (not shown). Such pumping systems for the purpose are well-known and details of their construction are not necessary here.

The conduits 25 and 26 insofar as they are illustrated in FIG. 1 are shown as rigid conduits which maintain their position even though the sleeve 19 be slid upwardly relative to the tubular stem 12. To provide for such sliding of the sleeve the side of the sleeve is provided with a longitudinal slot 27 through which the conduits pass out from within the sleeve. The length of the slot is long enough so that when the sleeve is. retracted to a position such as that shown in FIG. 2, the conduits are still accommodated within the slot. Need for the slot could be eliminated if the conduits within the sleeve were made flexible or provided with flexible sections, which could fold up when the sleeve is raised to the position of FIG. 2, or alternatively if the parts of the conduits within the sleeve were made with sections telescoping one within the next so that the conduits could be contracted or expanded with movement of the sleeve. In such case the conduits could be passed through relatively small circular holes through the sleeve.

In the use of the equipment the housing 11 containing the vibrator will be thrust down into the granular material or wet concrete, which will tend to resist the downward thrust especially when it does not have a very liquid consistency or contains large rock sizes. To perform this thrusting operation the sleeve will be pushed down to the position shown in FIG. 1 where the bottom of the sleeve engages the top of the collar 18. In this position the anvil, sleeve and vibrator are in rigid alignment and not susceptible to substantial bending. The downward thrust especially in the case of gravel or relatively dry concrete or cement containing relatively large stones or rubble with which the vibrator housing comes in contact, can be augmented by hammering on the top of the anvil. The presence of bond 24 will prevent any tendency for the sleeve to rebound from the annulus 18 during the hammering.

When the vibrator has been thrust the desired distance down into the wet concrete the link bond 24 is removed (if it was attached during the thrusting) and the sleeve withdrawn by pulling up on the anvil, to its position indicated in FIG. 2 where the bottom of the sleeve lies within the upper stem section 13 but not within the lower stem section 14 of the coupling 15. Fluid power is then applied to the vibrator by sending the pressurized fluid through conduit 25 into the vibrator and permitting it to return from the vibrator to the pumping system through exhaust conduit 26. The action of the vibrator is to throw its eccentric weighted element in a circumferential manner as the rotary ele- 'ment of the vibrator rotates. This causes the vibrator housing to make a rotational shaking movement laterally within the granular material or wet concrete which occurs even though the upper stem section 13 be held in a substantially fixed position, because of the flexibility of the coupling 15. This movement of the lower stem section 14 and consequently the vibrator housing at its lower end is represented by the dotted lines 14a and 14b shown in FIG. 2 and by the arrow 27. Although the dotted lines 14a and 14b are shown with particular reference to the lower stem section 14 it will be understood that the actual bending occurs at coupling 15.

To withdraw the equipment from the concrete a bond like bond 24 can be attached to the lugs 22 and 23, after which the equipment can be pulled up by pulling up on the anvil. To pull up the equipment while the sleeve is in the position of FIG. 2 the bond will be correspondingly longer than the bond 24 shown in FIG. 1.

The thrusting down of the vibrator is ordinarily best done while the vibrator is not vibrating. Then after the downward thrust has reached the maximum downward position to which it is to be thrust, the vibrator is turned on and the vibrator is slowly pulled up to the top of the material being compacted. This causes the material to fill in and compact completely in the vicinity of the vibrator. If the vibrator were turned on during the downward thrust instead of the upward pull, there could remain a relatively uncompacted column or hole of the material in the path of travel of the vibrator.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the invention, somewhat similar to that of FIG. 1. But in FIG. 6 a rigid tubular sleeve 19a is located outside the tubular stem sections 13 and 14 coupled by the flexible coupling member 15, instead of inside these stem members as is the sleeve 19 of FIG. 1. The sleeve 19a is attached at its top to anvil 21a and is provided with a longitudinal slot 27a corresponding to slot 27 of FIG. 1 to permit clearance for conduits 25 and 26. The lower part of the sleeve is adapted to rest on the top of the vibrator housing 11 when the sleeve is pushed all the way down as shown in FIG. 6. The anvil 21a is made removable and is provided with suitable means such as bolts 30 for bolting into threaded lugs 31 at the upper end of the sleeve. For securing the sleeve 19a in its downward position lug 22a is formed at the inside of the sleeve at its upper end and lug 23a is formed at the inside of the stem 13 so that when the anvil is removed from the sleeve the hooking member 24a may be applied to attach the lugs 22a and 23a to each other.

The operation of this embodiment is similar to that of FIG. 1. With the rigid sleeve 19a in its downward position the vibrator may be thrust down into the mast to be compacted, and when it is desired to return flexibility to the coupling member 15, the hook member 24a is removed and the sleeve can be pulled up to a position corresponding to that of sleeve 19 in FIG. 2. To maintain the sleeve 19a in this upper position it will be understood that a longer hook member than that shown at 24a in FIG. 6 will be used.

It will be recognized that by this invention there is provided a vibrator for settling granular material or concrete which can be hand-operated and forced into position within the mass of material by hammering without buckling the flexible coupling, and yet when put into vibratory operation will flex under the vibratory loading of the vibrator.

It will be understood that the embodiments of the invention illustrated and described herein are given by way of illustration and not of limitation, and that modifications or equivalents or alternatives within the scope of the invention may suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:

l. A vibratory system comprising: a fluid operated vibrator having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet; a hollow stem supporting said vibrator, said stem having an upper section and a lower section normally co-axial with, but separated from, and juxtaposed to, each other; a hollow flexible and elastic coupling joining the separated juxtaposed ends of the stem sections; a rigid hollow sleeve movable co-axially in both directions alongside the stern sections; means enabling the sleeve to be moved to a first position wherein it lies alongside both stem sections whereby the stem sections are maintained in rigid co-axial alignment to prevent substantial bending, and also enabling the sleeve to be moved upward from said first position to a second position so that the sleeve is withdrawn from the lower stem section, whereby bending at the hollow coupling can be achieved.

2. A system according to claim 1 in which means is provided for holding the sleeve in said first position.

3. A system according to claim 2 in which said means for holding the sleeve in the first position comprises a lug means on said upper section and a lug means on said sleeve and means for binding said lugs.

4. A system according to claim 1 in which means is provided for holding said sleeve in said second position.

5. A system according to claim 1 in which support means is provided at the housing above the vibrator, the lower end of said sleeve resting on said support means when in said first position.

6. A system according to claim 5 in which the upper end of the sleeve protrudes above the upper stem section when the lower end of the sleeve is on said support, and an anvil is mounted on said upper end of the sleeve.

7. A system according to claim 1 in which the outer wall of the sleeve is within the inner walls of the upper and lower sections when the sleeve is in said first position.

8. A system according to claim 1 in which the upper and lower sections are of the same cross-sectional dimensions and the outer wall of the sleeve is within the inner walls of the upper and lower sections when the sleeve is in said first position.

9. A system according to claim 1 in which a first conduit is attached to said fluid inlet and a second conduit is attached to said fluid outlet, said conduits extending upwardly from the vibrator within the upper and lower sections and within the sleeve, and the sleeve has a longitudinal slot through its side through which the conduits are brought to the exterior of the system for connection to a fluid source.

10. A system according to claim 1 in which the sleeve is outside the upper and lower sections when the sleeve is in said first position.

11. A system according to claim 10 in which the sleeve is outside said upper section when the sleeve is in said second position.

12. A system according to claim 1 in which the sleeve is within said upper section when the sleeve is in said second position.

5 v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE A CERTIFICATE OFCORRECTION Patent No'. 36,124, Dated September 17, 1.974

Invent or) EORGE L. MALAN ppearsin the above-identified patent It is certified that er y corrected as -'shown below:

I and that' said :Letters Patentare heieb Col. 3, line 1.]. after "when" in s'ert -'-so Col. 3; line 15 "of" should read r Signed end s ared thi 3rd a y of December 1974.

(SEAL) Attest:

MCCOY M. GIBSON JR. C.- MARSHALL. DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A vibratory system comprising: a fluid operated vibrator having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet; a hollow stem supporting said vibrator, said stem having an upper section and a lower section normally co-axial with, but separated from, and juxtaposed to, each other; a hollow flexible and elastic coupling joining the separated juxtaposed ends of the stem sections; a rigid hollow sleeve movable co-axially in both directions alongside the stem sections; means enabling the sleeve to be moved to a first position wherein it lies alongside both stem sections whereby the stem sections are maintained in rigid coaxial alignment to prevent substantial bending, and also enabling the sleeve to be moved upward from said first position to a second position so that the sleeve is withdrawn from the lower stem section, whereby bending at the hollow coupling can be achieved.
 2. A system according to claim 1 in which means is provided for holding the sleeve in said first position.
 3. A system according to claim 2 in which said means for holding the sleeve in the first position comprises a lug means on said upper section and a lug means on said sleeve and means for binding said lugs.
 4. A system according to claim 1 in which means is provided for holding said sleeve in said second position.
 5. A system according to claim 1 in which support means is provided at the housing above the vibrator, the lower end of said sleeve resting on said support means when in said first position.
 6. A system according to claim 5 in which the upper end of the sleeve protrudes above the upper stem section when the lower end of the sleeve is on said support, and an anvil is mounted on said upper end of the sleeve.
 7. A system according to claim 1 in which the outer wall of the sleeve is within the inner walls of the upper and lower sections when the sleeve is in said first position.
 8. A system according to claim 1 in which the upper and lower sections are of the same cross-sectional dimensions and the outer wall of the sleeve is within the inner walls of the upper and lower sections when the sleeve is in said first position.
 9. A system according to claim 1 in which a first conduit is attached to said fluid inlet and a second conduit is attached to said fluid outlet, said conduits extending upwardly from the vibrator within the upper and lower sections and within the sleeve, and the sleeve has a longitudinal slot through its side through which the conduits are brought to the exterior of the system for connection to a fluid source.
 10. A system according to claim 1 in which the sleeve is outside the upper and lower sections when the sleeve is in said first position.
 11. A system according to claim 10 in which the sleeve is outside said upper section when the sleeve is in said second position.
 12. A system according to claim 1 in which the sleeve is within said upper section when the sleeve is in said second position. 